Years ago, I found myself sitting in law school in Moot Court wearing an oversized itchy blue suit. It was a horrible experience. In a desperate attempt to avoid anything like that in the future I enrolled in a tax course. I loved it. I signed up for another. Before I knew it, in addition to my JD, I had a LL.M Taxation. I needed only to don my cape…. taxgirl® was born. Today, I live and work in Philadelphia, PA, one of the best cities in the world (I can't even complain about the sports teams these days). I landed in the City of Brotherly Love by way of Temple University School of Law. While at law school, I interned at the estates attorney division of the IRS. At IRS, I participated in the review and audit of federal estate tax returns. I even took the lead on a successful audit. At audit, opposing counsel read my report, looked at his file and said, “Gentlemen, she’s exactly right.” I nearly fainted. It was a short jump from there to practicing, teaching, writing and breathing tax.

Stirring the Pot: Could Legalizing Marijuana Save the Economy?

On April 2, One L. Goh allegedly went on a shooting spree inside Oikos University in Oakland, California, killing seven students. That same day, federal agents were otherwise occupied, raiding a business less than a half a mile away. That business, Oaksterdam University, is a medical marijuana training school in a location where it is considered legal for state and local purposes.

There’s some sad irony here.

One is, of course, not directly related to the other. But you can’t help but look at the two events – on the same day, just blocks away from each other – and wonder about our priorities. The expenditure of resources – including those linked to public safety – for political purposes feels misguided and wasteful. And it takes away from bigger, more important matters, like keeping taxpayers safe.

A spokesperson from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was on hand for the raid but didn’t comment on the specifics. She didn’t need to. It is no secret that the IRS has been at the forefront of the efforts to shut down medical marijuana dispensaries – not because they haven’t been filing and paying taxes (they have) – as part of a targeted effort by federal agencies to shut down the medical marijuana industry.

The IRS has been involved with monitoring the marijuana trade for nearly a century: it was the taxation of marijuana in the 1930s which lead to the criminalization of the drug in the first place. Until recently, however, the IRS had not come out swinging against medical marijuana dispensaries – not until last year when directed by the current administration to do so, memorialized in a June 2011 Department of Justice Memo (downloads as a pdf).

What’s the basis for the crackdown? States are getting cheeky, it seems. And apparently, the feds don’t care for that very much.

Under federal law, marijuana is still classed as a Schedule I drug which means that it is not legal in any form, including for medical purposes. Despite popular belief, it cannot actually be prescribed (to get it in most states where it’s legal, you need a note, not a prescription, from a doctor). That hasn’t stopped states moving to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. Sixteen states and D.C. have done so: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Twelve more have similar legislation pending: Alabama, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

States that have moved to legalize marijuana for medical reasons have done so for quite logical reasons: legalizing the drug (like nicotine and alcohol) means that it can be regulated. Regulations mean control. And control is directly linked to the almighty dollar.

The drug industry – both legal and illegal – is quite a lucrative market. Keeping it illegal, the argument goes, means that the most benefit flows to illegitimate members of society: dealers and cartels. On the other hand, taxpayers and government bear the burden of chasing those dragons as incarcerations for what are basically petty drug crimes continue to rise: $200 transaction can cost society $100,000 for a three-year sentence.

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nothing can ‘save the economy’ because ‘the economy’ (based on the keynesian model) is doing exactly what it was designed to do, boom and bust 99% of the people into the poorhouse and transfer all the ‘wealth’ up to the already stinking rich 1% (it’s doing that very well). as for the war on marijuana (drug prohibition in general), the real question is: is it legal? according that document most of the stand-up law-makers, law-enforcers, judges etc. swear their oath to protect, it clearly is not (like most laws it appeals to a majority of brainwashed sheeple who therefore allow it but in reality is motivated by corporate greed and again benefits the 1% to the detriment of everyone else). those people who pass/enforce/uphold such laws are themselves criminals by the letter of their own laws, they should be held accountable for their actions…

I believe in legalization. You my friend, are over the line though. Don’t just read one study. Cover them all. Pot does make you stupid. I know enough stoners to know that those studies are right. Pot ain’t good for your longues. It just ain’t. Acknowledge the cons to your argument and move on, knowing that the deaths that occur, the innocent people killed by cartels out weighs the risk of consenting to take a risk for a little fun. Not to mention the money we all save doing it.

Please educate yourself further on Cannabinoids before making such comments. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoid

In particular, the cannabinoid Canabidiol (CBD) actually counters the effects of THC in specific strains of cannabis that are known to have high CBD. These strains have different levels which are very medicinal in value and also can eliminate the after effects of too much THC (Dumbing Effect as you would call it). The problem we have had is the breading for high THC has outweighed the CBD enough the last couple decades to where with the current strains are too high in THC. But that is changing with current growing science and growers are now breading for the medicinal CBD content which is actually a non-psychoactive component of cannabis. Enough CBD in the medicine gives patients the pain killing effects, without the “high” of THC and also heals any long term effects of THC. We are learning allot from the medicinal legalization! This is a very complex plant and much more research needs to be done! But that does not mean we should wait to let others in need experience its benefits!

Why would the US Dept of Health and Human Services have a US patent on the health benefits of Cannabis???

The pharma companies are scared because you can grow it yourself and solve problems that it would take dozens and dozens of drugs to effect with so many issues.

Those against cannabis and support prohibition are just not educated and have been brainwashed from prohibition. We have basically made it illegal to feel good in this country unless we pay enough for it!

mother who use cannabis during pregnancy have healthier smarter kids. – http://patients4medicalmarijuana.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/marijuana-cannabis-use-in-pregnancy-dr-melanie-dreher/

so now that you have facts on cannabis lets just decriminalize all drugs – http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/

people complain about the crime and deaths the war on drugs has caused.. you explain why to end prohibtion and they say it will not work, its like they are standing in the rain saying they hate to get rained on and you telling them to come in side and they say no i will still get rained on.

I never could understand why we waste so much of taxpayers money fighting a substance whose purpose is to help those who choose to use it relax and enjoy life a bit more. Instead, we make it highly illegal, thereby creating an incredibly lucrative and violent market. Some Americans, out of ignorance or ideological purity, ignore the lessons of the Prohibition.

One thing left out in the article – another huge opportunity for farmers: hemp could make a comeback, and fuel a real economic revival in farm areas. Who knows, it might even reverse the trend of the textile industry moving overseas…

States like California that allow dispensaries should prohibit Federal thugs from operating within their borders.

Let’s take a step back from this – California should require that federal law enforcement acknowledge that they are operating within the sovereignty of the State and that State law is the law of the land.

Citizens – Rise up against federal tyranny! Demand that Nation Guard troops escort these federal THUGS out of our state.

The claim that marijuana legalization will lead to increased drug use is based in the nonsensical belief that people who currently abstain from both licit drugs (i.e. alcohol) and illicit drugs will suddenly acquire an urge to use intoxicating substances if no longer faced with the threat of arrest for smoking a joint.

Government data on substance abuse treatment admissions indicate that the overall level of addiction remains remarkably stable from year to year. Between 1992 and 2009, the percentage of the over-12 population in treatment held steady at about 0.75%, with a low of 0.71% and a high of 0.79%.

There are, however, considerable changes in the popularity of individual drugs. In 1992, 59.3% of treatment admissions were for alcohol abuse, either alone or in combination with a secondary drug. By 2009, this figure had dropped to 41.6%. Over the same period, treatment admissions for marijuana rose from 5.9% to 18.1% of the total. Cocaine use declined considerably during this time, while the use of both amphetamines and opiates increased.

Ending prohibition may cause marijuana to displace other substances as a drug of choice among the drug-using population. However, overall levels of use are unlikely to be affected. The demand for intoxicating substances is finite. Just as an increased variety of food products does not increase our desire to eat, an increased variety of intoxicating drugs does not increase our desire to get high. It is time to quit pretending otherwise.

Substance abuse treatment figures are available at the following link (change the final 2 digits to see results for other years): http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/quicklink/us92.htm

While I am not for the drug war because it’s a foolish waste of resources, I am certainly not for “legalizing” it and taxing it, especially not taxing it. As Henry David Thoreau put it, “That government is best which governs least.” I suppose that I am saying that we need to decriminalize it, as opposed to legalizing it. Let all governments totally ignore it as they did in the 19th Century.

I believe that this is the best of all, because: 1) Marijuana usage will probably decrease due to removal of its present “forbidden fruit” status, a status that always attracts more people than it repels. And reducing marijuana usage is a good thing in that being high never, and I mean never, helped anyone to be smarter or more productive. And 2) There won’t be another dime of taxes being collected. The best way to reduce government is to cut off their sources of taxes. That’s a wonderful thing because almost all tax dollars are a waste today in that they are spent on things that government should never have been doing, and even the tax dollars that are properly spent are never actually productive for us, they are the “overhead” that must be spent to keep our society operating. Also taxes burden our economy, taking dollars out of hands that can put them to productive use.

All of this speculation presumes that prices in a legalized and regulated market would be similar to those we see today in the black market (and in the medical market that sets its prices to compete with that black market).

It actually costs just a few hundred dollars to produce several hundred pounds of cannabis if you live in the right climate… and at black market prices, that tiny investment would translate to a retail value in the many tens of thousands of dollars.

If everyone who wants to can legally grow their own cannabis for recreational or medical use, those prices would fall by at least 90%… perhaps by more than 95%.

Sure, it would mean a far less profitable product for “drug cartels” and they’d quickly find a different way to make money… and enforcement agencies would probably find another market in which to terrorize and incarcerate people… but there’d be rather little tax revenue unless growing your own remained illegal and *very* severely punished.

If we want kids to start thinking marijuana is more dangerous than tobacco and alcohol again we better stop teaching them how to read. Eventually they have to read the real reports and studies and see it is safer. It even kills less humans each year than peanuts, no bs, real fact. The war on drugs is retarded, especially on MJ, and one reason I really hope to see Obama lose the election.

Cannabis is different from deadly nicotine and alcohol ~ Far less addictive than either, the nontoxic herb has also brought measurable social benefits in states where medically legal. These are fewer suicides and highway deaths. Further studies will surely show similar reductions in murders, assaults, rapes and domestic violence, all stepchildren of alcohol. The “gateway theory,” officially rejected in 1998 by the Institute of Medicine, is a fiction of prohibition. Save the economy? A free market in hemp would save the planet.

Please educate yourself further on Cannabinoids (Marijuana’s Properties) before making and comments . – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoid

In particular, the cannabinoid Canabidiol (CBD) actually counters the effects of THC in specific strains of cannabis that are known to have high CBD. These strains have different levels which are very medicinal in value and also can eliminate the after effects of too much THC (Dumbing Effect as you might call it). The problem we have had is the breading for high THC has outweighed the CBD enough the last couple decades to where with the current strains are too high in THC, which can be good for those who have a tolerance or patients who need high THC for their ailment. But that is changing with current growing science and growers are now breading for the medicinal CBD content which is actually a non-psychoactive component of cannabis. Enough CBD in the medicine gives patients the pain killing effects, without the “high” of high THC strains and also heals any long term effects of THC. We are learning allot from the medicinal legalization! This is a very complex plant and much more research needs to be done! But that does not mean we should wait to let others in need experience its benefits! We need to stop the attacks on state liberties, the voters have spoken!

Why would the US Dept of Health and Human Services have a US patent on the health benefits of Cannabis (Marijuana) ???

The pharma companies are scared because you can grow it yourself and solve problems that it would take dozens and dozens of drugs to effect with so many issues.

Those against cannabis and those who support prohibition are just not educated on the subject and have been brainwashed from prohibition. We have basically made it illegal to feel good in this country unless you pay enough for it! Those of faith, if God created this plant for us to use, ask yourself does God make mistakes?

Today I am going to take you for a walk through one man’s pain. This man has had pain inflicted on him by well meaning doctors from the day he was born. You will hear how the medical world has changed the way they look at pain, and how pain management has remained the same for thousands of years only to be modified in the last twenty years.

At times you may find what I am talking about embarrassing and ultra personal maybe even T.M.I. I assure you that no one will be more embarrassed by what I have to say than me because I am that one man and this is my life long journey through pain and how the medical world is just now catching on.

The world has been slow to understand pain; granted we have come a long way in the last one hundred years or so (Pernick, 1985, pp. 3-8). On a summer day in 1862 a Philadelphia laborer named McGonigle took a fall and fractured his ankle. He was then rushed to a hospital, where doctors immediately amputated the man’s foot ¬ without anesthesia. This event occurred a full16 years after a public demonstration of ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital had shown an astonished world that surgery could be painless. So it wasn’t until 1846 man found out that cutting parts off the body hurt? The Pennsylvania Hospital, where McGonigle was taken, had been among the last of the major medical institutions in the United States to introduce anesthetic drugs, but even there ether had been in use for over10 years. Chloroform and nitrous oxide had been in general use for almost as long as ether and all were inexpensive and readily available in 1862. So why no anesthesia for poor McGonigle? (Who, incidentally, died of shock two days later.) Historically, treatment for pain relief has varied according to the social status of the sufferer, because of the medical world’s relative insensitivity to pain. McGonigle fit perfectly the model for insensitivity: the man was an uneducated Irish immigrant who had been drinking when he fell (Pernick, 1985, pp. 4, 148-167). Now jump ahead 106 years The year is 1968 and the attitude toward pain has not changed much (Undermedication by medical professionals: Past. In 1968) Pediatric Experts L.S Wafford and D Allen gave the following instructions to intensive care doctors, “Pediatric patients seldom need relief of pain after general surgery. They seem to tolerate discomfort well. The child will say he does not feel well or that he is uncomfortable or wants his parents, but often this unhappiness will not relate to pain” (p.133). Five years prior to that pronouncement I was born and I was in pain, I don’t have to remember the pain to know it was there, it was 1963 and I was born with Hypospadias. Hypospadias is a male birth defect in which the opening of the tube that carries urine from the body (urethra) develops abnormally, usually on the underside of the penis. Because as a less than 24 hour old child, I did not specifically state that the reason I was crying was because I was in pain, I was not given any pain relief of any kind before during or after surgery. This seems like a harsh way to spend your first day of self-sustained life. First they knocked me out with ether, and then they cut up the most sensitive parts of my body. When I woke up crying, they decided it wasn’t pain that made me cry it was just that I needed my mother’s touch. I don’t want you to think that I am able to remember the pain that I felt on the day I was born because I don’t remember anything about the first four surgeries. If I wasn’t told about them I would not even know they had happened. In the eighties pain relief started to become more humane where as pain medicine was given by a nurse or other care giver when they decided the pain warranted medication, alternately some doctors prescribed meds on a timed schedule in an effort to avoid pain from starting in the first place. In 1982, M. Angell wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that a patient must be in the throes of pain before medication is administered because it was the humanitarian thing to do. Three years prior to that, I was in the hospital again. I had gotten my foot caught in a hay crimper. I won’t go into detail about this incident here but I will tell you that when it happened, I was alone in the field. After I freed myself from the machine I had to walk a quarter of a mile to get help. The first surgery went without complications Then there was the second operation. While still in the recovery room, I asked for painkillers and they gave me a pill–Tylenol I think. It only cost ten dollars so I know it couldn’t have been Motrin. I never got any relief from the pill so I asked them for something more. The nurse said I would have to wait at least half an hour before they could give me anything more. At the end of the half hour I was in more pain than words can describe. You could have cut off my foreskin now and I wouldn’t even have noticed. The nurse said. “The surgeon would need to give permission before we can give you anything more at this point” and they couldn’t get a hold of doctor. I was in tears and at my wits end the pain was unparalleled I can’t even come up with an adequate description 30 years later. The next time a male nurse came by I grabbed his arm and then put him in a headlock. Then I told them I would not let him go until they got me something for the pain. Moments later I was out cold. Apparently, they found something to stop the pain. Later when I came to, I apologized to the nurse over and over again. I felt terrible for doing what I had done, but I would do it again tomorrow if I was in the same situation. I mean really! Later I found out that they were instructed to wait until I was in the throes of pain before giving me pain relief, after all it was the humane thing to do but then again I might just be a wimp with a low tolerance to pain Data reveals a significant under treatment of pain in children. In the USA adults receive more than two to three times as many pain treatment doses as children with identical diagnoses. Data shows that the younger a child is, the less likely that child is to receive appropriate pain relief.

It is ridiculous to believe, that children’s nervous systems are immature and therefore unable to perceive an experience pain. All available data suggests that those theories are wrong.

While my story should end here, there is more. .Six years after my last foot surgery, my body turned on me. I spent 15 years going to doctors. I took different medical tests. These tests included muscle tests where people stuck metal things in my muscles with doses of electricity. There were all sorts of crazy tests and muscle biopsies. Still nothing was conclusive. The cause of my now constant pain was a mystery.

The twenty years that it took to find the cause and a way to stop the damage caused irreparable harm. The best anyone can tell is that my muscles were dissolving from the inside out slowly but surely. My muscles will not repair themselves, but the damage has stopped getting worse and will remain this way as long as I control my thyroid. The pain is constant and at times it is unbearable yet I find solace in the fact that it has stopped getting worse. It was such a hopeless feeling when the pain just got worse and worse and all the doctors could do was give me stronger and stronger pain killers. It hurts just moving my arms in the morning. Taking the covers off my body is painful. Standing on my legs is like jumping on top of two very long needles that go from the floor through the heel of my foot. It shoots through my calf muscle exploding in my thigh and then piercing my hip. I can feel every bit of that needle as it comes up from the floor to my hip. Every single inch of my muscle is screaming as the pain tears through it.

It got to the point I had to personally check myself into the drug rehabilitation hospital, because I thought I was going to kill myself and the doctors would not help me other than to give me more OxyContin I finally got myself off of the OxyContin; but I was still in pain. I went and found another Dr. who specialized in pain management. I explained my situation to him and after he went through my twenty years of medical records he asked me, “From the first time that you had this checked out to the second time you had this checked out you waited five years. Were you still in pain during that time?” I told him I was but it just wasn’t that bad because I didn’t feel it that much. Then he asked me if I was taking anything for pain back then. I said I wasn’t so he asked me if I was smoking pot back then, I said yes I was, quite a bit in fact He then asked me if it had ever occurred to me that the reason I didn’t hurt so much bad back then was because I was taking painkillers. The fact I was smoking marijuana was why it didn’t hurt that much.

You see when I grew up I quit smoking marijuana and doing all of the drugs that I had used unwittingly to take away the pain. I grew up and stopped taking the very pain killer that was helping me not feel the pain and still allowed me to be a full functioning adult. My doctor then discussed with me the possibility of becoming a medical marijuana patient. I am now a medical marijuana patient and my pain is mostly under control. I still have bad days, and because medical marijuana is expensive and hard to obtain legally I don’t always have any. When I don’t have any medical marijuana I am a mean, crotchety, paranoid, angry, hard-to-deal-with asshole. Pain causes me to be someone I don’t like to be. The pain causes me to treat my family the way they do not deserve to be treated. Marijuana gives me relief from the pain so I can treat people the way they deserve to be treated. Then again I might just be a wimp with a low threshold of pain.

Brilliant article but does not go far enough. Cannabis and Hemp can be used to feed our population, fuel our cars, replace plastic in our landfills and treat so many medical conditions. It’s time we grew up and had a “serious debate” on this topic.

A three year sentence can cost us 100k. Honestly I don’t want to send a guy to prison for smoking pot. Also the taxes and legal jobs it’d create would be amazing. I don’t see why Obama just doesn’t get behind it and say “You know what, let’s create a new industry, a couple hundred thousand jobs, and bring in a whole bunch of new taxes cut our spending in the war on drugs, and destroy the drug cartels source of income and make pot legal.

Marijuana can only be considered a gateway drug because it’s illegal. If people could purchase their goods at the local liquor store then they would be less likely to be acquainted with people selling illegal narcotics. I wish the government would do something worth while to save our economy. It sickens me how much we spend on controlling the use of a plant people smoke that alters their state of mind drastically less than alcohol. It sickens me how many people I’ve met that are alcoholics but would be everyday smokers if it wasn’t illeal, and how much better their lives would be and how much better their families lives would be if they were just smokers instead of alcoholics. I wish this country would stand up and fight for it. I makes more sence to legalize it.

Cancer is the no 1 killer in America. Smoking is the no 1 cause of cancer. Stopping smoking will help stop cancer. See where I am going here? Now Colorado has legalized one more way to die from Cancer. How stupid can you get? Oh gee, I forgot,..people who smoke are stupid and people who smoke pot are even more stupid. Colorado is giving parents one more way to kill their children or grandchildren and be part of the 400,000 that die annually from second hand smoke. Let’s see now, we have stupid people doing stupid things that end up killing other people. Hmm sounds like a plan. We had planned a week long trip to Colorado this summer however, not wanting to be around stupid people, we have cancelled those plans. That’s 4000 bucks this state won’t get. Seems deserving… I hope more Americans do the same. Colorado needs to go broke over this.